Credit Card Cap Frustrating Drivers At The Pump

As if four dollar gas prices weren't bad enough, drivers now have another problem: a seventy-five dollar limit on credit card purchases at the pump.

The cap was placed on transactions with the thought that it would never actually come into play. But with gas prices at a record high, it might be time to make some changes.

"Nobody can fill up their tanks with $75 any more," says Gitendre Singh, a station clerk at the Chevron facility on Keystone in Reno. "So people are just kind of agitated with that because they don't have time and it just stops at $75. Most people don't even know that's the limit."

Those customers are forced to make two separate payments at the pump to finish filling up. Drivers can avoid having to pay twice, by pre-paying inside, but most stations post no signs indicating any of this. Instead, clerks like Singh, are forced to tell customers, who are often already running late, and in no mood.

"They just get mad at us because they think it's our fault," says Singh. "I try to explain to people it's visa and MasterCard, it's your bank...It's not my system, it's the bank, so that's the problem we are facing everyday now."

The cap only applies to Visa and MasterCard holders. American Express has a 100 hundred dollar limit, but with some stations charging close to five dollars a gallon for diesel, even that might not be enough.

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